Two Free Tickets To Slush And To TechCrunch Brunch
Ville Vesterinen
Slush, an event for startups by startups, will take place next Monday in Helsinki, Finland. We have a whole lot of people already coming, but wanted to give out 2 tickets for two lucky persons who still haven’t bought their tickets.
Also, we have two tickets to give away for the TechCrunch Brunch @ Slush that takes place the day after Slush itself. Mike Butcher, the editor of TechCrunch UK will come to Finland for the first time to host an event for the local startup scene:
TechCrunch UK is partnering with Slush, and we’ll be throwing a breakfast brunch event for 100 start-ups, entrepreneurs, investors and key industry players the day after the Slush conference, so you’ll be able to come along and network over some great Helsinki coffee. If you’re a Scandinavian or Baltic startup, then this should be an event right up your street. It will be on Tuesday, 25th November at 09:30am to 01:00pm.
We will award a ticket to Slush and to TechCrunch Brunch for two persons who come up with the best English translations for the Finnish word Sisu. Every successful entrepreneur has a lot of this magical stuff that gives her the will power to push through against all the odds. Here’s the Wikipedia translation to get you started. You should write your own version into the comments below.
The description should be a one or two sentence punch line. We will choose the winner sometime tomorrow afternoon, so you have until that to write your version in the comments.
If you rather buy your tickets make sure you do it soon, since Slush is less than a week away. You can buy your ticket to Slush here, and your ticket to the TechCrunch Brunch for the day after here. Hope to see you at both.
RSS-feed
November 17th, 2008 at 3:15 pm
Sisu is, as many know, a lorry. It is slow to accelerate, but once it does any puny red sports car is easily crushed by it.
Can’t think of anything that better defines it than that.
November 17th, 2008 at 3:27 pm
Easy. Sisu is tenacity. That we call it untranslatable tells more about the English skills of this nation than of anything else.
November 17th, 2008 at 4:34 pm
did my homework learned a lot from that word, what a strong attitude, I think it is : what must be done must be done. (kick me if I m wrong)
November 17th, 2008 at 7:34 pm
Looking good =) Anyone else want to give it a shot?
November 17th, 2008 at 10:36 pm
Sisu is…
Not only strength, but sturdy stamina, not just tough but tireless tenacity.
Not quite rigid but resilient resolve, not desperation but determination.
or
Sisu is grit, determination, perseverance, and and the will to see them through.
or
Sisu is to Finns what determined strong-willed tenacious resilient gritty tough willful unfaltering gutsy resolute bloogy mindedness is to everyone else.
or
Sisu is not doing things half assed - it’s doing them fully assed!
or
Sisu is a brand of slightly unpleasant pastilles
or
Sisu is never giving up, except when the going gets tough - then it’s never *ever* giving up.
or
Sisu is the mythical force that enables one to endure the unendurable. And to like it.
or
Sisu means even when things look utterly hopeless you keep going because who knows what tomorrow may bring?
Sisu is the grit to grit your teeth, the nerve for nerves of steel, and the stick to stick it out
or
Sisu is writing ten definitions of a word from a language you don’t know well *just* to be sure of a free brunch
:)
November 17th, 2008 at 10:52 pm
[...] On another note, we are extending the Slush and TechCrunch ticket competitions by one extra day. So go on, have a go at explaining Sisu in the comments. [...]
November 18th, 2008 at 12:00 am
A bit of hasty copy-paste-self-plagiarism follows (not quite a one liner, but can be taken there in 10 seconds by losing sentences in the order of unimportance one by one :) :
‘SISU’ is an ancient Finnish and Estonian word denoting ’strength of will’ in the former and ’strength of meaning’ in the latter.
To have Sisu, is to have the guts. It is to have purpose, contents, and meaning to one’s life and words.
The two old Finnic cultures in the Northern corner of our mother earth share a peculiar trait often perceived as dullness by others — it is as wise as it is polite to reflect and silently reason first, and talk or act later, and NOT wise versa.
peace
m
November 18th, 2008 at 7:12 am
Not giving up against all odds.
November 18th, 2008 at 10:55 am
“Sisu” is to “having guts” what “a season of slush in Helsinki” is to “a rainy day in Silicon Valley”.
November 18th, 2008 at 12:46 pm
Keep going - no matter what.
November 18th, 2008 at 1:30 pm
Beyond tenacity, sisu is the final reserve of the human spirit that sustains us when, broken and demoralised, we struggle toward noble ends.
Or something.
November 18th, 2008 at 5:40 pm
Sisu is what it takes to survive these winters and by the end of the following summer forget how depressing it gets. Hence, Sisu must be a combination of dementia and endurance :)
November 18th, 2008 at 7:48 pm
For a startup context, I’d say Sisu is what it takes to develop a successful start-up here up-north, aka:
1 - firmly believe in your good idea although most people won’t
2 - get rock-solid partners ready to get out of the confort zone offered by the Finnish welfare state
3 - give up all your weekends and dedicate 70 hours a weeks to make your ideas come true
4 - stay cool while the Finnish tax system is taking a big part of the little revenue you would make
5 - build your case to get Tekes money and other government financing or grants
6 - do whatever it takes to get the funding and the trust from some (arctic and non-arctic) angels
7 - work hard at internationalization as it’s soon clear the arctic market ain’t enough for your real growth
8 - manage your cash like Roope Ankka and resist the economic downturn
9 - keep your engineering rock stars while the various Nokia subcontractors make them better financial offers
10 - but don’t forget to chill out, read Arctic Startup, and get yourself a free ticket to the Slush / Techbrunch to have fun networking with other Sisu-spirited entrepreneurs ;-)
November 19th, 2008 at 11:32 am
The Duracell inside you that never quits :]
November 19th, 2008 at 11:40 am
Sisu is the opposite of being a sissy!
November 19th, 2008 at 4:25 pm
Ok. Here we go. I liked them all, but what really got my attention one short and sweet, one that oozed ‘Sisu’ in what was ten definitions instead of one and one that went a step deeper.
TP’s “Keep going - no matter what.” is just that. That’s Sisu.
Stephen Sykes’ showed Sisu in outlining all ten definitions of the word, which were not bad at all.
I also liked how Marko Lepik put it: “To have Sisu, is to have the guts. It is to have purpose, contents, and meaning to one’s life and words.”
…but since Marko told me he is planning on doing 4-hour work-weeks from Thailand and taking off to the paradise just before 24.11. he does not need a Slush ticket. I don’t know what the guy is doing, but he seems to have his cake and get to eat it too. Clearly, he has had Sisu to get to that situation =)
Congrats to Stephen and to TP! I will contact you shortly.
November 19th, 2008 at 11:37 pm
Congrats to the winners from me too. Now I can comment on my own favourite:
Sisu is not doing things half assed - it’s doing them fully assed!
That got me laughing :-)
November 20th, 2008 at 2:08 pm
Sisu = Having balls